Significantly Statistical

Dave Sifry: "Technorati is currently tracking about 7,000 new weblogs per day, which means that a new weblog is being created approximately every 12 seconds. And I know we're not catching them all." [Via Doc Searls]

Lisa Williams: "How many posts did the 215 attendees on the blogroll make in the ten days prior to the conference in the aggregate? A whopping 2,757." [Via Localfeeds, the uber-aggregator for BloggerCon]

Who Will M Your DRM?

David Opderbeck:

The MPEG Licensing Association, a consortium of companies that licenses patent right relating to MPEG 4 audio and video technology, is seeking to serve as an industry standards-setting forum for DRM systems. In one way, this seems like a good development — let a private DRM market develop and regulate itself. In another way, however, it has some frightening potential — let a consortium of media companies effectively determine the scope of copyright and fair use through DRM standards that cannot be circumvented under the DMCA.

Completely unrelatedly, David also reports that James Earl Jones confirmed in a talk at Seton Hall this week that "he has several minutes of dialogue in Star Wars 3 after Anakin Skywalker falls into a volcano and is outfitted with the Darth Vader garb."

Today's New Blawgs

Noting some updates in the Judicial category:

• Update to Justice Bedsworth's link.


• Additions of Judge Alex Kozinski's 1996 Slate Journal [via J. Craig Williams] and classic humor (presented in weblog form) from Judge Jerry Buchmeyer [via Ernie Svenson].

Another Reason You Wish You Were In Boston This Week

[Update: CBS News Sunday Morning will cover the Ig Nobels on Sunday, October 12.]

From Ig Nobel central: "The 2003 Ig Nobel Prize winners were announced on Thursday evening, October 2, at the 13th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. Click here for details."

Slashdot sums up the winners:

• Engineering: the inventors of the Murphy's law.


• Physics: authors of 'An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces' report.


• Medicine: the scientists who discovered that London taxi drivers are smarter than average London residents.


• Psychology: authors of the 'Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities' report.


• Chemistry: a Japanese scientist who studied a bronze statue strangely ignored by pigeon population.


• Literature: the author of more than 80 scientific reports on amusing statistical information.


• Economics: the man who viewed the entire country of Liechtenstein as a large convention center.


• Interdisciplinary: authors of 'Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans' study.


• Biology: first documented case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck species.

California's Legal Swiss Army Knife Sprouts A New Blade, Takes A Swipe At Microsoft

I keep having these wonderful "small world" moments courtesy of J. Craig Williams. This time, he has news of what sounds like a fascinating lawsuit filed by a local lawyer I know from way back, Dana Taschner. Dana is suing Microsoft under—hey! there's that statute again—California Business and Professions Code Section 17200. The suit is a representative action, brought by an individual on behalf of the general public, seeking damages and forced security improvements as the result of an identity theft alleged to have been caused by Microsoft OS issues. Declan McCullagh recently reported on the difficulties in pursuing products liability claims related to software problems. ("A legal fix for software flaws?") Dana's lawsuit tries a different approach, and thus could break new ground in this area.

Craig posits a defense that would liken software to firearms, which is both insightful and, in my twisted little brain, funny. (I can just see the t-shirt: Windows Doesn't Kill People, 2600 K1Ll5 p30PlE.)